


Review of In the Depths of Your Despair by ghostbun

by mspafanfictionreviews



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-09
Updated: 2014-04-09
Packaged: 2018-01-18 18:53:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1439137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mspafanfictionreviews/pseuds/mspafanfictionreviews
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Review of In the Depths of Your Despair by ghostbun written by IN</p>
            </blockquote>





	Review of In the Depths of Your Despair by ghostbun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ghostbun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostbun/gifts).



Gore—It’s a genre I don’t often see in fanfiction of any kind, let alone Homestuck This is rather unfortunate given troll-culture is so heavily rooted in brutality and lends itself beautifully to violent, gory stories. It’s fair to say ‘violence’ and ‘guro’ are two separate genres, but they can go hand in hand if written correctly.

AO3 allows for authors to tag their story by certain “triggers”. In the navigation sidebar is a drop down menu in which you can explore every tag available. Looking for new fic ideas, I scanned the list and started noticing words like “guro”, “noncon”, “cannibalism” and “necrophilia”. I was as excited as disturbed at finding just how much authors had written in these individual categories. I checked the “necrophilia” box out of sheer curiosity and hit the submit button. Up came a mere five Homestuck stories in this tag. At the very bottom of the list was a fanfic called “In the Depths of Your Despair.”

The story description didn’t offer to inform much, instead being used by the author as an apology platform. An author apologizing for their work is usually a sign of a bad fic, but I saw the pairing was Eridan/Feferi and I wasn’t going to turn it down. It’s only 1,233 words so at least it’d be an easy read. Or, at least a quick one. I’m not sure gore is every easy on the eyes (or the stomach).

"In the Depths of Your Despair" wastes no time putting the reader into the action. We start off in the middle of Eridan’s killing spree during his betrayal walk-around. We get a sense of his mind-frame at the time, the feeling of power and the perverse arousal that comes from finally living out his fantasies and succumbing to his high-blood rage. After killing the matriorb, Eridan steals Feferi’s body (Karkat watching, unable to react to the unbelievable situation) and absconds to his respiteblock. We get a luscious description of the trauma to Feferi’s body by the attack. Organs, blood, tearing of skin..every disgusting and horrible detail we get painted in our mind.

The scene is laced with more insight to Eridan’s mental state as he reflects on memories, particularly comparing how Feferi looked alive to how she looks dead. He makes up a narrative in his head, thoroughly convinced in death that she finally wants a matespritship and to consummate it here and now. He gives into sickening, primal urges recalling details from the exact moment of her death and opts to rape her corpse in a very unique way—and I won’t spoil it. The scene ends and we get one last chance to pick at Eridan’s brain. If we didn’t realize it before, the author makes sure we realize it in the last sentence. Alternia is doomed, Eridan is selfish, and everything is just fucking psychotic.

Interpreting this fic literally I have to say, I liked it. I didn’t love it, though. For as much praise as I can give the author for attempting such a difficult subject (and for the most part succeeding) I still found it didn’t push the boundaries enough. The story gives a great set-up to just how far gone Eridan was in that moment, but he’s not so lost and unaware that I can understand his actions in this (particularly with “how” he raped Feferi. If it had been a standard rape maybe, but given the nature of it I think it would take a truly shattered mentality). I think the author could have followed through with his insanity a little more, describing more detail, focusing on his mental state.

The gore, while lovely, detailed and utterly disgusting also didn’t break any real barriers. I almost feel as though the author was afraid to involve themselves too much with this story. There’s great set-ups for mental imagery and it’s easy to picture, but there could have been more. Sound effects, in-depth descriptions, etc. I wanted to experience this fic in the fullest, not just see it. I want a gore story to disgust me to the core.

Eridan’s focus on Feferi’s blood and how it felt and looked was a major theme and I was sad that whenever it was referenced it was just “this happened” and “the blood was beautiful” instead of describing how the blood flowed. Did it gush out anywhere? Was it warm or cold? What was the shade (yes we already know this as fans but I’d like to have seen it in the story)? How did it serve as a lubricant? There are so many missed opportunities.

My last complaint was the lack of troll biology references, but that’s a personal issue. Maybe I’m nit-picking a little too much. I really enjoyed this story and so far it’s the best gore I’ve ever seen in fanfiction of any fandom. It sets a nice standard for other gore writings and I hope it inspires gore authors to really push the envelope and give in to total grimdarkness. That aside, it also serves as a unique and sympathetic look into Eridan as a character and his feelings in the moment of his betrayal. Fans tend to be very divided over how we should interpret that scene and I like this author’s take. If a fic can make us sympathize with a character after he’s degraded the love of his life’s corpse, I think it deserves a look even to the non-gore fans.

—Review by irregularNotation 2/7/12


End file.
